Mom to remove girl from Elmwood Park school over racist phone message

Elmwood Park School District 401 / HANDOUT

Elmwood Park School District 401 Superintendent Kevin Anderson said that students at Elmwood Park High School left supportive notes on the locker of a student who reported being targeted by a racial note earlier in the week. The student who reported the note has left the district.

Elmwood Park School District 401 Superintendent Kevin Anderson said that students at Elmwood Park High School left supportive notes on the locker of a student who reported being targeted by a racial note earlier in the week. The student who reported the note has left the district. (Elmwood Park School District 401 / HANDOUT)

Pioneer PressStaff report

The mother of an African-American student at Elm Middle School said she is pulling her daughter out of the Elmwood Park school after a note was left in the girl's locker telling her to call a phone number that led to a racist message.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Shonerka Howard said there had been previous incidents at the school but none that rose to the level of Monday's, when she said her daughter, who is 12 years old and in seventh grade, returned to school after winter break and opened her locker to find the note.

"I made the decision to take her out of school when that happened," she said. "That's enough."

She said she was concerned for her daughter's well-being after getting the message.

"To me, if someone could do that, I don't know what other kids in school [might] do," Howard said.

Elmwood Park Police Chief Frank Fagiano said a police report was made, "and it is currently being investigated." He said the report was not available and added that further questions should be directed to school district officials.

Saying they first heard about the incidents from the family on Tuesday, school district officials say they have launched an investigation. School officials are reviewing footage from video cameras in the hallway to see whether anyone was around the student's locker, District 401 Superintendent of Schools Kevin Anderson said Tuesday.

Howard said her daughter, in her first year in the Elmwood Park school system, texted her after finding a note inside her locker advising her to call a certain phone number. She said that her daughter then called the number and heard a pre-recorded message that claimed to come from the Ku Klux Klan and contained offensive language and a white-power message.

"Greetings," she reported the message as saying. "You have reached the loyal [inaudible] of the Ku Klux Klan. We just want to let you know how happy we are that that [racial slur] Obama will be gone in a few days. Not only will white people rejoice, but black people will, too."

The message said "thank God Trump is going to take over and send the Mexicans back," Howard said, and ended by saying that "if you're white and proud, join the crowd. White power."

Anderson said that one problem was that school officials were unsure when the note was placed in the girl's locker. He said school officials were told about the incident Tuesday, the day after students returned from winter break.

"So it's very possible it was put in yesterday morning," he said Tuesday, "but it also could have been put in before we left (for winter break after) Dec. 22." Officials have more reviewing to do tracking back to that date, Anderson said.

He said school officials had not received any reports of past bullying incidents involving the student "and are trying to learn more who could have done this."

On Thursday, Anderson said that students at the school had put up Post-It notes on the student's locker expressing support for the girl. He said students said they were angry "anybody would do this against the girl."

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The investigation will include a social worker interviewing friends of the students and others to learn more about the incidents, Anderson said. On Thursday, he said officials had not yet found out who had left the note that caused the girl to leave the school.

"We're very appalled any one of our kids would put such a [note] in another student's locker," Anderson said. "It obviously was intended to make her feel bad. ... The message was very nasty, and we don't [want] anything like that in our schools."

Howard said her daughter had experienced previous incidents with racial overtones at the school, located at 7607 W. Cortland St., but more along the level of what "you would expect kids at that level to do."

The message on the phone "had a whole political thing to it," she said, raising the level of her concerns.

"This is just a hateful message for a child who really was just basically attending school and not bothering anybody," she said. "She's basically there for her education."

Anderson said the girl has been a good student, involved in school activities, according to reports, "and we're sorry to see the child go."